Pollution: Delhi’s air quality may deteriorate severely from next week

Parents should try to avoid household air pollution by using less polluting fuels for cooking and heating and not smoking but to reduce child exposure to ambient pollution they should need to lobby politicians to clean up the environment, World Health Organization experts said.

Measures for air pollution control to be in force from November 1 to November 10 include shut down of Mundka industrial area, ban on construction and excavation (digging) activities, shutting down of industries that run on coal and biomass, ban on stone crushers, brick kilns and hot mix plants.

Keeping in view the worsening air quality in National Capital Region and Delhi, the Delhi Metro Rail Network (DMRC) has introduced 21 additional numbers of trains on its network which will provide 812 additional number of trips starting from Thursday. "Although upper air winds where transport takes place are from stubble burning site but speed and magnitude is low and hence unlikely to impact Delhi air quality significantly", it added.

The top court also expressed displeasure that three-and-a-half years have gone by since the National Green Tribunal had, on April 7, 2015, passed an order banning plying of 15 year old petrol and 10 year old diesel vehicles in Delhi-NCR, but the directions have not been complied with yet.

Weathermen have advised caution for residents of Delhi as the city's Air Quality Index (AQI) continue to score below "severe" category after breaching the 400 mark.

The PM2.5 level was recorded at 217.

On Wednesday, nearly all places in the NCR saw a drop in the the major pollutants PM2.5 and PM10 - particles in the air with diameters less than 2.5 mm and 10 mm respectively.

Underlining that steps taken by states to control stubble burning "are far from satisfactory", Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday called for an "aggressive plan" to combat pollution in a crucial meeting that was skipped by the environment ministers of four states around Delhi, including Haryana and Punjab.

In a meeting held on Thursday, Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik had directed all DCPs to ensure that Supreme Court guidelines on pollution control are implemented fully.

Around 177 vehicles have been prosecuted for carrying uncovered building material and amount of Rs 3,54,000 has been imposed as penalty on such vehicles, he said.

So far this year till 31 October, a total of 1,89,290 vehicles were checked and 391 of those were impounded as they were "over-age", he said.

His presentation focused mainly on tackling air pollution in cities and improving health and climate.

The teams will also post reports of the pollution on various social media platforms such as Sameer App of Central Pollution Control Board, CPCB.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.